WWE HOFer Rob Van Dam Looks Back On Performing In Front Of 'Intimidating' ECW Crowds

When it comes to the list of wrestlers who are most closely associated with ECW, Rob Van Dam is always near the top. "The Whole F'N Show" made his ECW debut in January 1996 and became one of the biggest stars the company had ever seen, even wrestling in the main event of the final pay-per-view ECW ever put on in January 2001. However, there was one thing that RVD wasn't quite sure about when he joined Extreme Championship Wrestling, that being how the crowd would react to him.

The ECW fans have gone down in history as arguably the most passionate wrestling fans of all time, but they were a group who were bloodthirsty and weren't afraid to let the wrestlers know how they really felt. RVD recently opened up about how he felt wrestling in front of that rabid fanbase during an appearance on "WWE Retrospective," stating that he felt a lot of pressure being in front of the ECW fans. "It was very intimidating to wrestle in front of that crowd," RVD said. "They're just waiting for you to slip so they could say 'You f***** up, you f***** up,' and for me, that would be the worst thing as a, I don't know, perfectionist. That's why like every time you do a springboard, you're taking that kind of risk. If you slip and mess up, you've got to live with that."

RVD went on to look back on an early ECW match he had with Sabu in 1996, where Van Dam turned heel at the end of the bout. RVD said that he didn't want to turn in the moment as he didn't want to get on the bad side of the fans, but admitted that Sab u was right to suggest the idea and learned to always feel the moment.

Please credit "WWE Retrospective" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.